Thursday, October 13, 2016

My family had the privilege of trying the Online Christian Filmmakers Academy from Family Gravity Media, a division of Families For Christ Ministries, Inc. for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool
curriculum. This is a Schoolhouse Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

This course is put together by part of a homeschooling family, father-son team: Ken (father) and Zack (son) Lawrence. Since 2004 Ken & Zack Lawrence have worked together learning the film industry themselves and creating productions
including; the feature film In His Steps, the TV series Welcome Home
Antelope Valley, DVD releases: The
Pastor's House, Father-Child Projects, The Courtship Formula
documentary, and many short films.With more than a decade of experience under their belts they have created the Online Christian Filmmakers Academy.

From left to right, top to bottom of Video Lesson Layout: Ken, Zack, Zack teaching lighting accessories, and this video has a download with it.

Online Christian Filmmakers Academy is a online cinematography school that is taught by Ken & Zack Lawrence. This online film academy teaches cinematography which includes: lighting, camera operating, photography skills, directing skills, sound design, and film score composing. Within the training there are videos of Ken and Zack teaching. In the Introduction by Ken we learn that some of the videos might have been updated so as to keep the information up to date and current. In other words you might see a difference in time from one video to the next depending upon if they thought it was necessary to update the videos or not. Even though you do not need to go out and purchase any equipment for this course, it still is great to have some hands-on practice. As Zack tells us, "It is
very important to put what you have watched into practice" so that you retain the information
better.

Landing Page and Navigation Menus.

This Christian filmmaking course is jam packed with a lot of information! It includes video segments, quizzes and sometimes downloads. The course starts out with three introductions: Navigating the Website, Introduction by Ken, and an Introduction by Zack. There are a total of five modules after that: The Camera, Cinematography, Sound, Pre-Production, and Production. Each module has 5-15 videos which make up a total of 45 fairly short videos (including the introduction ones). Each are 1-22 minutes. They are currently adding quizzes after and sometimes even within a module to see what you have learned in each section (most of these say coming soon). The one after module 1 has 25 questions. When you take the quiz online you will immediately receive the answers upon completion. They will also be adding material to the Bonuses section which currently doesn't have anything. After watching each video lesson it will automatically mark it as completed and each one will receive a check mark beside it in the menu or you can mark it as complete/ yourself. Under each video lesson there is a place to enter comments/questions if you need to. Other students and even the company can then read your comments/questions and respond/answer. This makes it fairly interactive as well. Also the video lessons follow a Christian perspective but are not heavily indoctrinating with Christian theology. You just hear a few Bible verses here and there.Here is an syllabus of the course modules:

The Camera – how it works and DSLR usage

Module 1 Lesson 1 - Introduction to the Camera

Module 1 Lesson 2 - DSLRs and Lenses (Part 1)

Module 1 Lesson 3 - DSLRs and Lenses (Part 2)

Module 1 Lesson 4 - Frame Rate

Module 1 Lesson 5 - ISO and Shutter Speed

Module 1 Lesson 6 - Tripods and Camera Support

Module 1 Quiz

Cinematography and Lighting – working with different types of lighting

Module 2 Lesson 1 - Introduction to Cinematography

Module 2 Lesson 2 - Color Temp & White Balance

Module 2 Lesson 3 - Hard vs. Soft Light

Module 2 Lesson 4 - Types of Lights

Module 2 Lesson 5 - Lighting Accessories

Module 2 Lesson 6 - Using Lights

Module 2 Lesson 7 - 3 & 4 Point Lighting

Module 2 Lesson 8 - Painting with Light

Module 2 Lesson 9 - Framing

Module 2 Lesson 10 - Outdoor Lighting

Module 2 Lesson 11 - Depth of Field

Module 2 Lesson 12 - Jibs and Dollies

Module 2 Lesson 13 - Green Screen

Module 2 Lesson 14 - Setting Up An Interview

Module 2 Lesson 15 - Final Considerations

Module 2 Quiz

Sound – capturing the sound in the field and post production

Module 3 Lesson 1 - Introduction

Module 3 Lesson 2 - Sound Equipment

Module 3 Lesson 3 - Microphone

Module 3 Lesson 4 - Field Recorders

Module 3 Lesson 5 - Location Recording

Module 3 Lesson 6 - ADR and Foley

Module 3 Quiz (Coming Soon)

Pre-production – preparing to make your film a reality and getting everything you need prepared beforehand

Module 4 Lesson 1 - Introduction to Pre-production

Module 4 Lesson 2 - The Story

Module 4 Lesson 3 - Writing the Screenplay

Module 4 Lesson 4 - Pre-production Paperwork

Module 4 Lesson 5 - Assemble the Team

Module 4 Quiz (Coming Soon)

Production – working onset, with budgets and making your idea a reality

Module 5 Lesson 1 - The Crew

Module 5 Lesson 2 - Set Hierarchy

Module 5 Lesson 3 - Set Etiquette

Module 5 Lesson 4 - Directing

Module 5 Lesson 5 - The Slate

Module 5 Lesson 6 - Filming Step by Step

Module 5 Quiz (Coming Soon)

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
Among a lot of other things, my husband has a background in animation and went to film school when he was younger. He had his own studio called Brian Pictures and he and a friend of his were trying to put together a production called Ohiomation in Ohio where he would be taking students from Ohio schools and putting them through a course to teach them animation and film. This ideally was to create an animated movie about the Wright Brothers first flight and called Kitty Hawk that was to be produced in time to celebrate Ohio's Bicentennial. This didn't ever materialize because of school politics, but he sure did learn a lot on his journey. I know that animation is totally different from learning cinematography and since it was a while ago that he learned about being a director and producing film I thought that maybe he could have a refresher and get caught up with all the new equipment involved.

I love photography and have a small background in theater. I have also always wanted to learn cinematography for myself. I thought that it would become a handy skill to have for vlogging and making fun home movies. I have very little experience in this and so I have instead stayed out of the limelight for the most part. I also thought it would be a wonderful experience to have my boys be taught this wonderful art for their homeschool studies and as an extracurricular curriculum.

Since we have a whole year to finish this whole course we are pacing ourselves. I decided that I would take the course first to get a feel for how involved it was. Since the video lessons are fairly short I was doing about a module every 3 days to a week/week and a half depending how long they were. The second module took me the longest. I expect my husband and boys will go through this quicker.

I don't have any of the equipment that they mentioned in this Christian film course, although like I said above you can take this course without any extra purchases even though you are highly encouraged
to get out your own equipment and play with what you are learning as you
go. My camera is an old Canon PowerShot SX110 IS and I have used it for videos before, but I really had no idea what I was doing! They recommend a DSLR or a digital camcorder which my camera is not. I; however, have been wanting a DSLR for Christmas and so this just gives me another reason to get one.

Online Christian Filmmakers Academy is a exceptional course! It is very thorough in teaching you a strong foundation in cinematography. I highly recommend this for anyone that would love to learn all about the art of making motion pictures. I think this online film school is also perfect for the an extracurricular art and is perfect for homeschooling or supplementing education for public school.

BUY IT
You can purchase a full year of the course for $299 at the time of this post. You can get $100 off until November 30th, 2016 by using Coupon Code: FALLCREW16 at checkout. It includes a 30 day no questions asked money-back guarantee. The one year membership is good for your entire family and can be used by multiple students within your household.
You can get tips and free video lessons on the Christian Filmmakers Academy Facebook page.